By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, Mar 1: Mark your calendars as a total lunar eclipse will shed the moon of its silver glow for shades of red and orange known as the ‘blood moon’ on March 3 (Tuesday), which is also Chap Goh Mei, the fifteenth and final day of Chinese New Year.
According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a lunar eclipse occurs when Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, casting a gigantic shadow across the lunar surface and turning the moon a deep reddish orange—an occurrence that can only be seen during a full moon phase.
“During a total lunar eclipse, the moon appears dark red or orange. This is because our planet blocks most of the sun’s light from reaching the moon, and the light that does reach the lunar surface is filtered through a thick slice of Earth’s atmosphere. It’s as if all of the world’s sunrises and sunsets are projected onto the moon,” it said.
To view the lunar eclipse, no special equipment is needed, as all that is needed is a line of sight to the moon.
However, for a more dramatic observing experience, NASA recommends seeking a dark environment away from bright lights, as well as using binoculars or a telescope.
If you want to take a photo, use a camera on a tripod with exposures of at least several seconds.
“On March 3, totality will be visible in the evening from eastern Asia and Australia, throughout the night in the Pacific, and in the early morning in North and Central America and far western South America. The eclipse is partial in central Asia and much of South America. No eclipse is visible in Africa or Europe,” said NASA.
The estimated schedule of the lunar eclipse—which has been converted from UTC to Malaysian time—is as follows:
- Penumbral eclipse begins (4.44pm): The moon enters the Earth’s penumbra, the outer part of the shadow. The moon begins to dim, but the effect is quite subtle.
- Partial eclipse begins (5.50pm): The moon begins to enter Earth’s umbra and the partial eclipse begins. To the naked eye, as the moon moves into the umbra, it looks like a bite is being taken out of the lunar disk. The part of the moon inside the umbra appears very dark.
- Totality begins (7.04pm): The entire moon is now in the Earth’s umbra. The moon is tinted a coppery red.
- Totality ends (8.03pm): As the moon exits Earth’s umbra, the red colour fades. It looks as if a bite is being taken out of the opposite side of the lunar disk from before.
- Partial eclipse ends (9.17pm): The whole moon is in Earth’s penumbra, but again, the dimming is subtle.
- Penumbral eclipse ends (10.23pm): The eclipse is over.
In addition, constellations may be easier to spot, as at the time of the eclipse, the moon will be in the constellation Leo, under the lion’s hind paws.
“Several days later, on March 8, look for a ‘conjunction’ of Venus and Saturn: from our perspective on Earth, these two planets will appear close to each other in the sky—though they’ll still be very distant from each other in space,” said NASA. — DayakDaily
